Hey all- this is actually ZainAnak, typing to you with Sox right next to me but extremely busy ATM.

-- SO --

you're probably all wondering what this means?

Here we go:

We essentially sold our company to Linden Lab, makers of Second Life. They approached us several months ago with the desire to make their admittedly subpar graphics look better- we agreed and took a contract project to show them just what we could do. We wowed the pants off them and we'd basically gone into hiberntation mode as we closed the acquisition deal with them. They had wanted to start up a Boston office and with their growth, they need talent badly right now- they made us a fantastic offer and we're now spearheading their Boston studio.

-- BUT ZAINANAK, SOX, YOU GUYS ARE GAME DEVELOPERS, HOW COULD YOU DO THIS??? --

This is is where it gets interesting, actually Believe it or not, we (WMI) are still an entity and we still retain ALL of the IP assets surrounding Alliance. Obviously this means we have frozen development for a while, but as you could tell from the relative lack of new media, we were anyways trying to figure out how to get development jump started and were a ways off from release.

-- BUT ZAINANAK, SOX, THIS IS SECOND LIFE! LAND OF FURRIES AND BAD GRAPHICS!! --

We know. We had the same perceptions going into this as the rest of you guys. It was only when we really looked below the surface and realized what the system was capable of that we got excited. Really excited. This is a fully open, massive scale system and world. Anyone can make things. Anyone can script things. Imagine Gary's mod on a global scale. The problem is the visuals, lag, etc. need to catch up, and quick. But once they do, you're looking at something enormous- the game production possibilities are huge. Do a little reading up on it- beyond the bad press it gets on gaming sites, the number of users and scale of content available are huge- imagine, once the tools and graphics are in place, logging in with a few friends and building a mockup of some game concept you want or some massive world, collaboratively. But you'll have ten million assets to choose from- ten million islands to explore to find the pieces- and if not, build your own- you own anything you build. And your distribution channel already exists! 6 million registered users and growing 30% a month! It's like a 3D google image search with facebook to boot. Once the scripting is in place to do wild stuff, well..............

-- BUT ZAINANAK, SOX, WE STILL DON'T BUY IT- THIS IS CRAP AND WE WANTED ALLIANCE! --

So do we. So do we. But trust us, we didn't make this move unintelligently. Ultimately, this was very close to the type of thing we had wanted to do long term. All I'll leave you with is this- wipe away for a second the lag and the lack of HDR, and imagine something with the look of Crysis, the tools of Gary's mod and Maya, and 100,000 users roaming around playing every sort of simulation (gaming or otherwise) imaginable. Yeah- that's what we have in mind. Alliance ain't dead. TRUST US.

-- BUT I STILL DON"T BUY IT! --

Fair enough. There's only so much convincing we can do Just hang tight, watch this space, and trust the guys that put this together on an impossible budget and a virtually non-existent team- we make hot stuff. We really, *really* do, and that's still the case. Believe me

WMI is still it's own company in charge of creating Alliance, but since essentially the people working for WMI, to create Alliance, now work for Linden, Alliance is stuck in the mud until further notice? I guess I can't say I blame like you said, "they made you an offer you couldn't refuse." Question though, was it in a deep mafia type tone of voice when they made the offer?

If so, are we talking months, a year....?

Argh and here I thought 2007 was gonna be a great year for PC fps games.

On a side note I read somewhere today that a TV company's Second Life island got nuked by griefers, whatever the hell that means. At least now the nukes will look pretty.

Well this is not good news in the eyes of Alliance fans, but I'm sure you guys have to do what you need to.

On a horribly extreme sidenote; Isn't that last picture from The Shinning? The movie one, not the TV remake. I wanna say it's not based on that other man's suit but I remember a scene where the mother walks in on something like that.

Yeah I tried to get into awhile ago, but after about a week I really didn't see the point. You basically just move around and that's it. Sure you can create stuff but that's only if you know how to use their scripting language. I can see the draw for people, but it's just not for me. Anyways good luck WMI and hope you guys let the world know when Alliance is back on track.

Any Company of Heroes players in here? I've been playing alot under the name Bota16. Had to move to RTS games for now because the FPS market is pretty crappy at the moment. Play a little of Ravenshield lately also (same name).

alliance wasn't supposed to be a "wander around" real life sim. It was suppsed to be the revolutionary FPS game...

How much of that previous stuff still applies to this new alliance?

-Over 200 guns?

-Weapon attachments?

-Realism settings?

-Amazing, epic storyline?

Is the new alliance even still an FPS.??

Wait, has alliance been converted into an MMO or are you guys simply using the second world technology to greatly expand the scope of the Alliance MP component?

Will there still be an SP component?

I'm confused, how much of the oriinally concieved version of alliance remains?

EDIT : my interpretation of the gamespot article indicates that Alliance might not even happen. Alliance might be cancelled so WMI can spend all their time on second life.. oh. my god.

What was wrong with Alliance?

Wasn't delivering the most amazing FPS ever more improtant than coming to second life's rescue?

And what's with making WindLight open source? That takes all the special out of the alliance engine.

And about second life.. I don't see what it has in common. Alliance was never even close second life. Alliance was never about being able to roam around or (if I've interprted this correctly) script your own games in game... Seems about as far from Alliance as possible actually.

It's a sad day for gaming. First canbcells the orange box, forcing us to pay for games that we already have and then Alliance..well..

Guess they have blowed their contracts with their shareholders and sponsors. And tok all money into own pockets. There was never a Alliance engine in work or even a game. A plot. Faked it all out, to get sponsors to pay them lots of money. Jokers.

_________________Visit the confirmed weaponlist at the fan-site www.campwars.com ... Squad will even be started to those who have the guts ...

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum